


bona fide

by Keibey



Series: feliciter vincti [2]
Category: Aldnoah.Zero (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, incubus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-22
Updated: 2014-11-22
Packaged: 2018-02-26 14:18:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2655143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keibey/pseuds/Keibey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Pact is not a chain connecting master and servant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	bona fide

At the sound of the door opening, Slaine woke up all at once, bolting upright in the bed. If Inaho found his reaction odd, the brown eyes didn’t show it, expression bland as usual. He got to his feet without much thought, standing uncertainly as the boy approached.

“Those clothes are too conspicuous. Put this on,” the boy said in lieu of a greeting, holding out a bundle to him.

Slaine nodded as he accepted the clothes automatically, setting them on the bed to free his hands, but his contractor made no move to leave. “Um,” he started awkwardly, “Could you please wait outside?”

“Is there a problem?” The brown eyes wasn’t mocking at all, just attentive, but Slaine shifted uneasily under the attention anyway.

“I’m not comfortable with someone watching me change,” he admitted quietly.

It surprised him when Inaho merely turned on his heel with a nod. “I’ll wait outside. Let me know when you’re done.” Slaine watched the door clicked shut, and he let out a breath he hadn’t known he had been holding.

Taking off the Vers uniform was so routine he barely registered what his hands were doing, but he held up the new clothes with a sort of curiosity. It looked exactly like Inaho’s, and he wondered if it was some kind of uniform too. They also smelled a bit musty as he put them on, but no trace of the former owner lingered in the fabric, even to his senses. Maybe they had never been worn?

It took only a moment for Slaine to realize that the tie would be a lost cause, and he left it hanging forlornly around his neck as he opened the door. Inaho was waiting on the other side, as promised, and the way the brown eyes raked over his form left him a bit self conscious, but his contractor said nothing as he reached out and took the ends of the tie. Slaine watched the calm expression as Inaho knotted the fabric; it was so much more difficult trying to figure out what the boy was thinking than the captors he had dealt with.

“Yuki and the others will be in the headquarters if they managed to escape,” Inaho said as he tightened the knot, but it wasn’t as constricting as Slaine would have thought, his hand coming up to pull experimentally at the collar when his contractor let go, “Turn around, Bat.”

Puzzled, Slaine obliged, and it was partly fear and mostly sheer will that held him still when he felt the boy slip something around his neck and fasten it. “This is a throat mic,” the level voice explained behind him, without prompting. He felt himself relax by degrees as Inaho adjusted the tightness of the device – there wasn’t any magic tinting the mechanical parts, no sensation but cool plastic. A firm hand on his shoulder had him turn to face Inaho again, and his contractor slipped a blocky device into the breast pocket of the blazer, connecting it to the collar with practiced ease. “It’s a communicator.”

“Oh,” Slaine looked down at the wires with new recognition, chagrined by his own slowness, “It’s very different from ones I’ve seen.”

“Vers has more advanced technology,” Inaho said simply, and the brush of fingers against the side of his face as the boy fitted the earpiece into his ear made Slaine lift his face. “Why did you choose me for the Pact?”

Slaine tilted his head at the sudden question. “They couldn’t give me what I wanted.”

The boy just nodded, like that was all the information he needed. “Do you need breakfast?”

“I don’t eat –” Understanding clicked in Slaine’s mind the same moment he noticed the glint of amusement in the brown eyes, and he pulled away, shaking his head as he said defensively, “No.” At least Inaho let the subject drop with nothing more than the ghost of a smile when he bent over to grab a bag that Slaine hadn’t noticed was sitting on the ground until now.

“Nightfall isn’t until a few hours, but there are enough clouds to move out now,” Inaho said as he took a flashlight out of the pack before pulling it over his shoulder, “I don’t think the dark is a problem for you?”

Slaine doubted that his contractor didn’t already know, but he answered anyway. “No, I can see quite well in it.”

“Good.” The boy started off down the hall, leaving him to follow. “We’re still a few hours away from friendly territory; if you need to rest, we can camp along the way.”

 _Was it concern, or pragmatism?_ “I’ll be alright, I’m used to it,” was all Slaine said out loud, but the brown eyes flicked to his face with an unreadable look anyway.

The countryside looked very different from the night before, but Inaho had been right, the overcast sky darkening quickly above them as the boy led them purposefully in a direction Slaine only knew was vaguely northeast.

It was Slaine who noticed the patrol first, his senses still sharper than an enhanced human’s, and he tugged gently on Inaho’s sleeve to get the boy’s attention. “It looks like a patrol, up ahead.” His contractor turned off the flashlight immediately, even dimmed as it already was.

“As I thought,” the brown eyes squinted into the darkness, but it’d be in vain; Slaine could barely make out the shapes himself, more flickers of light than anything else, “the valley is the only way out of this area. We’ll have to go through.” Stowing the flashlight, the boy shook out some sort of cloak, the eye-catching orange standing out even in the dark.

“Won’t that be too obvious?” Slaine asked incredulously.

“It has its uses,” was the only answer he got with the slightest of shrugs, but Inaho turned the fabric over to the much more sensible blackened side before fastening it over his clothes. “If we get through undiscovered, we won’t have problems on the way to headquarters.” The brown eyes caught Slaine’s. “How long can you manipulate the shadows?”

“Not very,” he admitted, his eyes flitting involuntarily to the sigil before glancing up ahead. Certainly not long enough for them to creep through the valley; the growth at the edges seemed to be thick enough to hide in, but a light would easily let them be spotted.

If his contractor was disappointed, it didn’t show in anyway Slaine could tell. “I need a closer look. Let’s go, Bat.” Inaho nearly moved soundlessly at this point, and if he had needed any proof that formal training had gone into the boy, Slaine would have it now.

Closer apparently meant nearly at the feet of the patrolman at the mouth of the valley, and Slaine shifted nervously behind Inaho. Not in any way that would make noise, of course, but–

He had to stifle sound of surprise when his contractor abruptly grabbed his wrist, pulling him close to whisper with lips against his ear. “They only carry flashlights; stealth will be enough. When I tap my finger against your wrist, pull up the shadows around us.”

Slaine nodded in acknowledgement, and with some effort wrenched his attention from the warm hand to the soldiers standing guard around them. The patrolmen moved in well coordinated ways, obviously designed to blanket the valley with constant surveillance, but Inaho seemed to have a route planned out in his head. They crept past the first man who was too bored to pay attention, staring blankly into distance with his flashlight pointed to the ground as he walked, letting them take over in the overgrown plants trying to reclaim the valley. At the feeling of a finger drumming against his skin, Slaine coaxed the shadows up around them, and they slipped past the light of the more vigilant stationary guard further ahead - obviously that one was meant to make up for the first.

It was a slow, nerve wracking progress shuffling through the underbrush, but as they neared the halfway point, Slaine began to see that Inaho wasn’t only making use of the rocks and plants of the overgrown valley, but also picking and choosing the guards. Crouched behind a crate of supplies, Inaho watched the cycle of the patrolmen carefully, and gave Slaine the signal when the yawning man came around. It was a bit more difficult to move the shadows now, the sigil dimming a fraction with every pull as the darkness responded more and more sluggishly to his call.

They made it to the next boulder nevertheless, and Slaine let out the breath he had been holding as he released his power over the darkness. The fact that the end of the valley was so much closer made him more optimistic, even as he ducked his head under the beam of a light came arching overhead; that was really what had let him see the person in the bushes, stretching carelessly just a few steps away. The guard only needed to turn around to see them.

Making a split second decision, Slaine tore at the shadows from all around as he tackled down the guard, wrapping it as tightly around them as he could to muffle the sound of the fall. The man struggled underneath him, and panicking, he moved to pin the limbs down.

There was a thud against the guard’s neck, after which the man went still - unconscious, some small part of Slaine noticed, the chest still rising and falling under him.

“Slaine,” the voice was quiet as always, but it was enough to make him refocus, and he looked up at his contractor. Inaho had moved away from the man’s head, brown eyes boring into his. “You can stop now.”

Blinking uncomprehendingly for a moment, realization dawned and he released his death-grip on the shadows. They slinked back into their proper places soundlessly, but Slaine had to slowly clamber off the prone body; the sigil’s glow was barely visible, although the warning was redundant against the feeling of fatigue.

“We should keep going,” he said, giving himself a mental shake.

Inaho nodded, gaze unreadable, and his contractor moved onwards, taking Slaine’s wrist again. The signal never came again, the boy opting to wait longer rather than rely on Slaine’s magic, and their progress slowed to a crawl.

The last guard seemed to take a short eternity to turn around and leave their path clear, her flashlight canvassing the overgrowth far too close to where they were hiding for Slaine’s peace of mind, but they managed all the same. Inaho didn’t pause, continuing on with an unerring sense of direction once they cleared the valley. At a lone abandoned sign post in the middle of the lightly forested area, the boy paced his steps carefully away from it, and then crouched down to examine the ground. Pulling out a knife, his contractor dug the tip into the dirt, seeming to be tracing an outline of something.

“Stand behind me, Bat.” Slaine obeyed, peering over Inaho’s shoulder curiously. It was a hatch of some sort, the blade freeing the latch from the surrounding nature that was trying to claim it back, and then the boy pulled the trap door up, revealing stairs. Inaho went down the first step, and then turned to him while holding up the door. Slaine moved hurriedly down the steps, his contractor’s footsteps following behind.

The emergency lights came to life with a soft glow when the hatch closed behind them, throwing shadows in stark relief against the concrete walls. It was a short hall, the door at the end seeming to be made of heavy steel.

Inaho brushed past him and pried off the panel beside the door, revealing a glowing keypad and a small screen. The lock beeped angrily and flashed red when Inaho entered a string of numbers into the keypad, and worried, Slaine glanced at his contractor, but the boy only touched his throat mic. “Yuki, was the passcode on the eastern exit changed?”

“Nao!” Slaine recognized the female voice from the mansion as it crackled over the earpiece, “It’s 3254 now.” The numbers Inaho punched in were clearly different, shifted upwards two numbers, but the lock beeped green and his contractor swung open the heavy door. “I’ll come get you, don’t run off again!”

“Got it.” The boy turned off his mic and stepped through the threshold. Slaine followed, but the door had barely shut behind them before he felt Inaho’s careful yet firm hands push him back up against the wall, the brown eyes close enough for him to see the rust-red hue.

“You’re hungry.” It was a statement, not a question, warm fingers touching the corner of Slaine’s eye. “The glow in your eyes, it dims when you’re hungry.”

“Oh,” he said distractedly, too focused on the way the fingertips trailed lightly down to cup his face. His gaze shifted from the hand to Inaho’s face, lingering on the lips before he dragged them up to meet the amused brown eyes. His contractor tilted his head up, eyelids dropping to half-mast in a way that would have been predatory if the look was less lazy, and Slaine angled his face down.

Inaho led with his tongue this time, a quick teasing swipe against Slaine’s lower lip before tangling smoothly with Slaine’s own tongue, wet and warm. His contractor moved on far too quickly for his liking, but when the methodological tracing found a new spot that sent a curl of pleasure down his spine, pulling a soft noise of appreciation from him as his eyes slid shut, it was easily forgiven.

Slaine felt Inaho put a hand on his hip just as the boy leaned closer, slipping a knee between his legs and making his breath hitch. Winding his arms around the slender waist, he pulled his contractor closer, breaking apart briefly to slant their lips together at a different angle. His eyelids fluttered open when Inaho’s fingers lingered at the corner of his eye again, the gaze that met his equal parts languid smugness and lazy desire. Being pinned under that attention made him flush, a warm tingling skittering down his nerves as his pulse pick up.

He pushed Inaho back, putting the back of his other hand up to his mouth. The boy just changed his target to Slaine’s inner wrist, pressing soft lips against the sensitive skin.

"You're too good at this," he said in a tone that sounds almost like an accusation even to his own ears, and the heat spread to the tips of his ears in embarrassment.

"It's all just theory," his contractor said matter-of-factly, "There's a sensitive spot here too." The hand left his hip and fingers skimmed teasingly up his inner thigh, making his blush darken. The sound of footsteps pulled his attention away, but Inaho’s hand carding through his hair brought it back to brown eyes.

“Your sister is coming,” he warned quietly, unsettled that he had been so distracted he hadn’t noticed the noise until it had already drawn so close.

Inaho made a noncommittal sound in acknowledgement, but instead of pulling back, the boy leaned in and caught his lips again.

“Inaho,” he murmured against his contractor’s mouth, trying to redirect the boy’s attention. The steps were coming closer, and the thought of being caught like this –  “Please stop!”

His contractor stepped back immediately, hand giving his head a pat before withdrawing from his hair. “Was that so hard?”

Slaine didn’t have time to ask before Inaho’s sister came down the corridor. Yuki looked between the two of them, clearly knowing she had missed something, even if she didn’t exactly know _what_. Her gaze lingered on him with something that was very close to a glare, and Slaine fought the urge to duck his head.

“What were you thinking back there, running off like that!?” She stopped in front of her brother, hands on her hips. There was some sort of brace against her left arm. “And don’t think I’ve forgotten about that Pact.” Her hazel eyes cut over to Slaine at the last part, making him shift his weight uncomfortably.

“I don’t think even you can be that forgetful.”

She ignored the jab, her tone livid, features scrunched up in worry. “Do you even know what you’re getting into!?”

“I’m familiar with how the Pact works,” was the calm reply, “It’s mutually beneficial.”

“It’s not worth your–”

“Make decisions as circumstances dictate. If you have to, trust your gut and make the call,” Inaho said calmly, looking his sister square in the eye, “It was the choice I decided I could live with.” The lady’s lips thinned into an unhappy line, clearly unimpressed, but she didn’t seem to have a counter to that argument.

“Yuki, you go on ahead with Slaine, I have something to do first.” Inaho walked off without waiting for a reply, disappearing quickly down the corridor.

For a moment, the two of them stood still, and then the lady made a frustrated sound before throwing up her arms, turning on her heel and stomping off. Slaine hesitated briefly before hurrying after her; the compound was a maze of corridors and doors, as he would have expected of a base, and just because he could track down his contractor didn’t mean he fancied getting lost.

The room Yuki eventually barged into wasn’t particularly large, but the way the furniture was arranged inside gave off an imposing impression that Slaine was familiar with. “Sit,” she said curtly, and he obeyed the command automatically, sliding into a chair as he warily watched her circle to the other side of the table.

“I don’t know how you got Nao to agree, but end your Pact with him.” The determined look had arranged her features into an expression that made the sibling similarities suddenly obvious.

“I can’t,” he said – at least, not without doing something she would hate even more vehemently.

“You have to be able to do _something!_ ” Slaine flinched at the raised fist, jumping slightly when the impact made a dent in the table. Silence stretched as he slowly straightened to face the lady again, not entirely sure what to make of the combination of anger and confusion warring on her face.

“You really thought I would actually hit you?” she asked at last.

“Yes,” he answered without hesitation, uncomprehending in how the concerned frown came back at his reply.

Yuki heaved a heavy sigh after a few moments, pinching the bridge of her nose. When she put her hands on the table again, it was with a lot less force than before. “I’m saying this ahead of time, but I will not hurt you. Not unless you attack someone. Understood?” Slaine nodded obediently when she paused pointedly. “I guess we started off on the wrong foot. I’m Kaizuka Yuki.”

“I’m Slaine,” he answered politely, and he shook the hand offered to him tentatively.

“My brother is kind of reckless,” she said as she flopped listlessly into the chair, “I hope you can rein him in.”

Slaine had only managed to open his mouth when the door opened and Inaho appeared in the doorway, a black device in one hand. “Bat, I’ve moved Calm out of our room. I’ll show you where it is.”

Glancing at the lady and taking in her resigned expression, he got up and trailed after his contractor. The room was relatively close, a small plaque beside the door bearing Inaho’s full name and that of a Calm Craftman. Slaine entered the room with slow steps, but the tension eased quickly his senses detected no magical wards. A desk occupied the left side of the room, and a bunk bed was pushed up against the opposite wall. A calendar hung where Slaine supposed a window would have been, if the compound was above ground.

“Do you want to be on top or bottom?” The quiet voice asked in its usual flat tone behind him, closer than he had thought, and Slaine turned around quickly, almost expecting a hand to reach out and pull him against clever lips. Only his contractor was merely standing there, watching him with that amused light in brown eyes.

“I don’t have a preference,” he answered, feeling heat creep up his neck when he belatedly realized it could be taken as an answer to the innuendo.

Thankfully, when Inaho spoke, it wasn’t to tease him further. “I’ve told Inko and the others that you don’t like being touched, and that people watching you eat makes you nervous.” The brown eyes dropped check the device one last time before the boy slipped it into a pocket. “If they notice you freeze up or not eat, they will want to know why. Whatever you choose to tell them is up to you.”  

Slaine gave his contractor a puzzled look. “Why didn’t you tell them I’m not human?”

“That isn’t my decision to make,” Inaho said simply, and it belatedly occurred to Slaine that he was being given the choice – that this was _kindness_. “I’ll be heading to the mess hall; you can come if you want to.”

When his contractor left the room, Slaine found himself falling into step behind Inaho without a second thought.

**Author's Note:**

> bona fide | in good faith, genuninely  
> Continued because of popular demand, but mostly because of prodding from [misurabu](http://tmblr.co/mFTVJQ0IBjjieu8X6-3CZQQ), [slainetroyard-official](http://tmblr.co/mdKGU5gGPqFWHVroSWd5qPA), and [limyth](http://tmblr.co/mw4CN4l-3vBqMT6SFKVWQoQ); many thanks for the interest!


End file.
